Padres hire Hoyer as new GM

Jed Hoyer, an assistant general manager with the Boston Red Sox, has been hired as the new general manager of the San Diego Padres and will be introduced Monday at Petco Park, according to Union-Tribune sources.

Hoyer, 35, will take over for Kevin Towers, the Padres' longtime GM who was let go at the end of this season.

Hoyer, a former college pitcher, has a mind for quantitative analysis and an equal emphasis on scouting and experience as an assistant GM under Theo Epstein – qualities Padres CEO Jeff Moorad said he would value in a new GM.

Hoyer is the same age former Epstein assistant Josh Byrnes was when picked as general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks by Moorad when Moorad was with the Diamondbacks.

Hoyer has not run a department of his own, but he spent seven years working with Epstein. In one of baseball's major coups, Epstein went to Phoenix over Thanksgiving holiday in 2002 to pitch Curt Schilling on a trade that would move the veteran pitcher from the Arizona Diamondbacks to Boston, and Hoyer was there in the living room for those three days of negotiation.

Hoyer does have GM experience, too, albeit only 44 days worth. When Epstein essentially walked away from the club on Oct. 31 of 2005, Hoyer was one of four front-office members chosen to guide the Red Sox by committee. Soon the GM job was shared by only two, Hoyer and Cherington.

During their brief stint in power – Epstein returned in January – they worked a deal that brought ace pitcher Josh Beckett and veteran third baseman Mike Lowell to Boston and sent shortstop Hanley Ramirez and pitcher Anibal Sanchez to the Florida Marlins. The trade worked out splendidly for both clubs and certainly went a long way toward giving Boston its second championship in 2007.

Hoyer was baseball coach at his alma mater, Wesleyan University, where he'd set the school saves record while also playing some shortstop. He then coached at Kenyon College before taking the internship in Boston.